1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable information terminal (including a tablet terminal, a smartphone, and the like) and a technology related thereto.
2. Description of the Background Art
There is a technology in which a plurality of application programs (also simply referred to as applications) operate in cooperation with each other (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-212348).
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-212348 describes a technology in which a plurality of applications executed in a portable telephone share image data to perform a cooperating operation. In more detail, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-212348 describes a technology in which image data is shared by two applications (a scan/print application and a gallery application (image viewer application)) which are operating on “Android (trademark) OS.”
Because of the fact that a portable information terminal (tablet terminal and the like) has a relatively small display unit or other reasons, only one of a plurality of applications is basically in an active state in the portable information terminal. In other words, on a portable information terminal, only one of display screens of the plurality of applications which is under the management of a single application is selectively (exclusively) displayed.
Alternatively, on such a portable information terminal, when a plurality of applications operate in cooperation with each other, the display screen of a cooperation source application is, in some cases, displayed by using the whole of the display unit (touch panel or the like) while the display screen of a cooperation destination application is displayed by using only a part of the display unit. For example, in the cooperation destination application, there is, in some cases, displayed an image (an image having a size of approximately a fraction of the entire screen) on only a part of the display unit, wherein the image has a size of approximately ½ (half) to ⅓ (one-third) of the display unit in the horizontal direction and is a slightly small in the vertical direction (see FIG. 15). Such a display can be performed in consideration of unity of screen design and the like. In more detail, in some cases, in the cooperation destination application, there is used a screen (setting screen or the like) with a design similar to the design of a screen (small screen) of a part of the display screen of the cooperation source application. In such a case, a screen (relatively small screen) which has the same size as that of the small screen used in the cooperation source application is used as a major display screen of the cooperation destination application.
In such a technology, for example, a major display screen of the cooperation destination application is displayed in a relatively small area (partial area) on the entire screen of the display unit of the portable information terminal, and a monochrome black background image is also displayed in the peripheral area of the partial area (see FIG. 15).
However, when such a monochrome black screen is displayed, not only a user gets a dry impression but also cooperation between two applications is not sufficiently conveyed to the user.